


Magic in the moonless night

by notmeagain



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship, it's the start of something all right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25527772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notmeagain/pseuds/notmeagain
Summary: Sokka can't sleep and stumbles upon one of Zuko's late night practices. Curious, Sokka stays to watch Zuko and gets more than what he bargains for.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 550





	Magic in the moonless night

**Author's Note:**

> trying to get back into writing fics and wanted to do some writing exercises so i wrote a little something.

Sokka should be happy. They just returned from Boiling Rock after rescuing his dad and Suki (they didn’t even know Suki was there!). He should be ecstatic and for the most part he is. Really. But then, there’s also a part of him that keeps him up at night scared out of his mind. 

He worries about their friends still locked up in some Fire Nation prison, about how he and the gang were going to survive, about defeating the Firelord, about saving the world.

He’s still haunted by his failure at the Black Sun invasion. His dad told him no one blamed him for it, but he takes responsibility for all of it anyway. If only he was smarter, maybe he wouldn’t have fallen for Azula’s tricks.

It’s in one of those many sleepless nights that Sokka finds himself walking aimlessly through the Western Air Temple. The night sky was clear, full of stars but it was a new moon. It feels silly but Sokka was hoping the moon could keep him company, at least. 

The universe can’t give him everything, he supposes.

Drifting through one of the abandoned buildings at the temple, he finds himself up in an outdoor hall overlooking a small courtyard. Suddenly, he hears footsteps from below. Sokka peers over the railing to see Zuko planting torches around the open space.

Curious, Sokka settles in to watch what in the world the banished prince is doing alone in the middle of the night. Zuko is kind of a mystery to him. At first, he didn’t trust the guy because how could he when the boy spent the better half of a year chasing them down. Then, all of a sudden, Zuko changes his mind and decides to join them? How does that happen? Sokka could ask of course but Zuko had a habit of getting angry and closed off when someone starts asking some personal questions.

Sokka thinks Zuko is getting better though. He doesn’t yell as much and he smiles a little more, those shy ones--blink and you’ll miss it types. He never does.

Zuko continues with whatever he’s doing unaware of Sokka’s presence. He plants the torches in a dotted square and goes to stand in the middle. He shrugs off his top, gets into position, and proceeds to enchant Sokka.

  
  


* * *

In the middle of the empty courtyard, Zuko stands with his eyes closed as he finds his center. He thinks about his most recent adventure with the Avatar-- he should probably just call him Aang at this point-- and concentrates on what the dragons taught them. His memories carry him back to his uncle’s wise words. His breath of fire.

He takes a deep breath and lets it go. He finds his fire-- his light. He opens his eyes and ignites the torches in quick succession. He lets his body go through the basic motions. Punching the air twice, fire erupting with each blow, he kicks off the ground and uses the momentum to twist the flames with his legs. He lands in a crouched position. Catching his breath quickly, he jumps back on his feet. He smiles.

Zuko starts to feel more relaxed as he gets into the groove of his practice. He starts another round of swift punches, columns of flame roaring high then some high kicks to test his flexibility. This display was all about power. Every move a showcase of strength calculated to envelop the enemy in fire.

Sokka watched from the balcony in rapt attention. He’s always known Zuko was a good bender, but ever since his trip with Aang, he’s grown into his own. He didn’t know Zuko was capable of something like this. Sokka’s eyes tracked the graceful movements of the prince’s arms and strong legs. It would look beautiful if it wasn’t so terrifying. He could feel the heat of the flames from all the way up where he is.

Zuko’s attacks slow down gradually. Precise blows turn into big horizontal arcs of flames, one after the other like waves to the shore. Zuko does two sweeps with his arms to add to the inferno, the torch flames higher than ever. Then, he stands straight again, his upper body taut with tension. Zuko lifts his arms delicately and extinguishes the flames. He ends the practice with a bow. He stays in that position a moment longer than necessary, maybe trying to slow down his rapidly beating heart.

The courtyard seems so dark after so much firebending. Sokka squints trying to see what Zuko was doing next. He’s seen a lot of firebenders do their thing, but this up close it was something else. Zuko has a restraint he hasn’t seen in the firebenders they’ve encountered. Another thing to add to the growing list of  _ Zuko Quirks _ in Sokka’s head.

Zuko is breathing heavily and Sokka watches, waiting for what he does next. Is it creepy to watch quietly from the sidelines like this? Sokka hopes not, but thinks so.

Sokka sees Zuko straighten up and roll his shoulders, stance loosening. It looks like Zuko is done as he goes to the side and wipes his face with his discarded top. A little disappointed, Sokka starts heading back when the torches light up again.

* * *

Zuko takes in the quiet, emptiness of the courtyard shrouded in darkness. He thinks this is the closest he’s come to peace in a long time. It feels different from the cold solitude he’s used to, he welcomes it now. With nothing but the endless stars and moonless sky for company, he wants to believe this is what it feels like to finally be content. Uncle told him once that happiness doesn’t just happen, he needs to try to be happy too. But this isn’t happy-- not yet. He needs to make amends with his uncle to be truly happy but he likes to think even if Iroh was furious with him, his uncle is proud of what he’s become.

He tries to remember happier times. Him and his mother at the palace gardens. Playing at the beach with Uncle Iroh and Lu Ten. Running around the palace with Azula when they were kids. A fading memory of the Fire Festival passes to the forefront of his mind. He looks at the empty courtyard again and decides to try.

Zuko stands at the center of the space and starts his set. Sokka sees Zuko lighting up the torches again, but this time there’s a softness to it Sokka never thought firebending could achieve.

Once the torches were alight, Zuko stretches his arms at either side of him, palms out creating a thin ring of fire around him. Sokka looks at the pure happiness in Zuko’s face and his breath catches in his throat.

Zuko turns the line of fire into a whip, he swings it over his head putting out the lit torches. He cracks the flame whip once and it disperses into tiny flares suspended in the air. The world, for a moment, was filled with the glittering lights of the stars and Zuko’s sparks. 

The prince is lost in memory. Zuko remembers begging Uncle to teach him tricks after he saw a magician at the Fire Festival. He said he didn’t want a paper dragon anymore and just wanted to know how the magician did  _ that _ . As a child, he was mesmerized by those tricks because he’s only ever seen fire as something violent. But there in the streets of Caldera City he saw magic.

The next part of Zuko’s set effectively blows Sokka’s mind, his jaw hitting the flow. Zuko moves his stance: feet apart, knees bent, and arms gracefully placed away from him. He pulls the sparks with a gentle flowing motion. It looks more like a waterbending move than a firebending one. The sparks turn into a ball of multi-colored fire. The ball of fire rises up into the night sky to join the stars. As soon as the sphere hits its peak, it explodes into small butterflies. Dozens upon dozens of differently colored wings litter the night sky flying aimlessly.

Zuko beams and Sokka thinks that he looks so young. The smile makes Zuko’s face look so vulnerable and open. Sokka thinks it suits him. It’s also the first time Sokka actually acknowledges the fact that Zuko’s the same age as them. They’re all just kids trying to save the world.

Zuko breathes in and folds his arms, the butterflies disappearing as he does so. He opens his arms again and pumps his left fist to create a jet of fire. With his arm still raised, he turns and the flames arc upward turning into a dragon. He lets it fly around the courtyard following its movement. 

He splits the dragon into two, one red and another blue, with his hands. The twin dragons fly in a spiral, circling each other intertwined. As they finish a round, Zuko detangles them, shooting one up in the air and the other to the ground. 

The blue dragon shrinks and burns close to the ground. The red one finally comes down its form shifting as it does so. Zuko’s posture is languid, fluid but his hands are poised and in control. There’s a spark in his golden eyes that looks so alive Sokka is surprised by it.

The red dragon changes into its final form: a group of turtle ducks. One is clearly the mom and is surrounded by her babies. They land gently into the blue fire which is supposed to be water and paddle around. Zuko lets them float for a while then combines the two flames into a roaring sphere once more. He bends it into a line and coaxes it to shoot straight up creating a vortex as it goes along. When it reaches its maximum height, the vortex bursts a final time setting the courtyard back into darkness again.

Zuko stands at the center of the space with the biggest smile Sokka has ever seen grace his face. Sokka cheers, whistling and clapping all the while. Funny enough, Zuko startles badly and yelps out an adorable “gah!” and then a much less adorable and much more furious “show yourself!”

Sokka waves, a bit sheepish from the balcony. “Sorry!” he yells out from the balcony.

Zuko’s face sours instantly much to Sokka’s dismay. But before he can start shouting Sokka adds, “Don’t move! I’m coming down!”

Sokka climbs down from the balcony and runs up to Zuko, who now looks a bit uncomfortable. It reminds him of the time in the war balloon when they were trying to make conversation. This time though Sokka isn’t going to let things get awkward. He’s a sociable guy, maybe he can get Zuko out of his little turtleduck shell.

* * *

Zuko feels self-conscious. The only person he’s ever willingly shown his tricks to was his mother. And it looks like Sokka’s been watching the whole time. What was he doing up anyway? The reason he practices in the middle of the night is because no one was awake. What if he didn’t like his tricks? What if he thought it was stupid like Azula did when she would taunt him or his father when he yelled at its uselessness? They’re in the middle of a war. They have no use of silly tricks. He hopes Sokka thought different.

Zuko chastises himself immediately. He shouldn't care what Sokka thinks of his little magic. But he does. In just a short time, Sokka has managed to become one of the very few people whose opinion Zuko actually cares about. 

“What are you doing here?” Zuko cringes at how accusatory his words sound. He needs to work on his delivery. Maybe practicing with the badgerfrog again will help.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Sokka shrugs all nonchalant and cool. “I saw you practicing and stayed to watch.”

“Oh.” Zuko didn’t know what to say next but he certainly didn’t expect Sokka to grin at him.

“You were amazing!” Sokka’s sincerity puts Zuko off-kilter. “I’ve never seen anything like that before! You didn’t tell me you could do  _ colors _ !”

“That’s the fire we learned from the dragons,” he says. He can feel his face growing hot. “And it was just some tricks. Nothing too special.”

“Are you kidding? You made the fire come alive like one of those illusionists at festivals!” Sokka puts a hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “That was spectacular.”

Zuko’s first instinct is to shrug off the hand, but if he was being honest he liked the friendly contact so he made no move. “Uh, thanks. So, what’s keeping you up?”

“Oh, um…” Sokka takes his hand back to scratch at his cheek. “The usual.”

* * *

Sokka doesn’t meet Zuko’s inquiring gaze. He doesn’t want to talk about his fears. Saying it out loud makes it more real. Also, he doesn’t really think Zuko is that up for listening to him whine like a kid scared of the fictional monster lurking in the dark.

“You’re thinking about the war,” Zuko says plainly.

Sokka wonders if he’s that easy to read. “That obvious?”

“No.” Zuko shakes his head. “You hide your emotions well. It’s just… I think about that too. Sometimes. I worry. Maybe, uh, talking could help?”

Soka looks at Zuko in disbelief. Is the guy whose response to Sokka telling him his first girlfriend turned into the moon was “ _ that’s rough, buddy” _ offering to talk? That’ll go great.

His hesitance must show on his face again because Zuko was quick to say, “I know I’m not good with the talking part, but I’m pretty sure I can listen.”

Sokka smiles, appreciates the effort. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to,” Zuko answers simply.

Something small but heavy settles somewhere inside Sokka’s chest. Warm, familiar yet indescribable. He doesn’t examine it too closely for now.

“Okay,” he agrees.

The smile Zuko gives is enough to take Sokka’s breath away once again. Zuko lights one of the torches nearest the cliff and they sit under its light side by side. It helps that they’re not looking at each other.

After a long pause, Sokka tells him about his fears. How he worries about his family, his tribe, his friends. How he’s scared he’ll fail again and what that would mean.

Zuko, true to his word, listened to every word and gave the appropriate response to pauses and particularly heavy feelings. Sokka wants to joke about him becoming a regular person now but he doesn’t know how well he’d take it. Maybe someday they’ll know each other well enough for that to happen. Sokka hopes.

“It’s okay to be scared,” Zuko says quietly. “As long as it doesn’t stop you from doing the right thing.”

“But what if I still fail?” Sokka looks up at the moonless sky and thinks of Yue.

“The future is always in motion. Don’t get stuck in the present because of what ifs,” Zuko intones.

Sokka blinks blanky at Zuko and smirks. “That was actually almost halfway wise.”

Zuko’s face turns a cute shade of pink. “I’m trying to help you.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I meant that as a compliment,” Sokka assures. “You embarrass easy.”

“I do not,” Zuko huffs staring pointedly at the ground,face still pink and getting darker.

Sokka notes the lack of yelling and thinks this is progress, at least. Come to think of it, he does feel better talking about his feelings. He hasn’t shared his fears with anyone because he didn’t want to burden his sister, his friends, or his father about them. They already had enough to worry about without adding his feelings on top of it.

“Thanks for listening,” Sokka says with all the sincerity he could muster. It’s nice to finally find a friend his own age. Someone who understands that his silences don’t mean indifference.

Zuko turns to him and gives him a small smile. “No problem.”

Sokka looks at the prince, and really look. The angry jerk he met before is such a different person from the person smiling shyly at him now. Zuko is a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, inside an enigma, and Sokka is known for cracking even the most complex puzzles.

* * *

Zuko tries to live in this quiet moment a little longer. Having a friend was nice, he decides. 

“How about you?” Sokka asks. “You said you worry too. What about?”

Zuko pauses unsure of what to say. It’s only fair that he reveal his secrets too since Sokka was so forthcoming with his, but it’s hard to talk. It’s always been hard to talk. 

“You don’t have to tell me right now,” Sokka says. “Or ever for that matter. It’s just--I don’t know you helped me a lot these past few days. Risking your life to save my dad and Suki, and now listening to me talk about my problems. I just want to help.”

Zuko is speechless. He isn’t used to being cared for by so many people. The only people who ever did were gone. His mother is missing somewhere and his uncle is probably angry at him. He’s afraid he would somehow find a way to destroy the friendships he was building here.

“Tell me about your magic fire thing earlier.” Sokka is kind enough to change the subject and Zuko is relieved.

“You liked it?” He hates that he asks and he hates how his heart hammers waiting for Sokka’s approval. He is rewarded with a grin, no hint of mockery what so ever.

“Of course I did.” Sokka’s voice was warm and it filled overbearing honesty. “It was beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Zuko replies quietly.

“Come on.” Sokka nudges his shoulder with his own. “Tell me how you make the little sparky thing.”

Zuko chuckles and regales Sokka with the tale of how he set fire to one of the studies in the palace because he was so excited after seeing his first magic show. He also tells the story of how he discovered it. 

“They did a bit where the magician tames a dragon and it turns into confetti,” Zuko explains. “At that point, I was so amazed by it all. I’ve always thought fire was just a tool to destroy an enemy. Then, I saw these street performers at the festival and I thought it was so beautiful.”

He remembers telling his uncle that he should’ve said sooner that firebenders can also do magic and why were they so busy teaching him how to fight when he could be doing things like that.

Sokka laughs at the escapades of young Zuko and he hurts a little for the series of events that led to his path going so far astray. Zuko finishes his story and they let the quiet of the night settle in.

They sat in companionable silence side by side. Sokka sneaks glances at Zuko but averts his eyes quickly, completely missing the times when Zuko would chance looks at him.

“We should probably get a little sleep,” Zuko states. It is almost dawn, he can feel the sunrise coming in soon.

Sokka agrees. He stands and extends a hand to Zuko. “Come on then.”

Zuko looks up at the warm smile and kind eyes. He takes Sokka’s hand. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! hope you liked it!


End file.
